The suffering caused to the travelling public by yesterday's rail strike looks set to continue and even worsen. Unless a positive and creative approach is adopted quickly by the various trade unions and interests involved, we could suffer a repeat of last year's damaging dispute that dragged on for ten weeks. While the ATGWU has agreed to attend a meeting of a Disputes Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions tomorrow to consider its actions - including a complaint of "poaching" of members made against it by SIPTU and the NBRU - it has refused to call off the strike. Because of that, today will witness the second of nine days of planned industrial action with train services in Munster and the Midlands being affected. After that, the dispute will extend to the West and the North West tomorrow before returning to Dublin and the east coast. It is a dreadfully messy situation. If anything, the issues and circumstances involved are more intractable than those of last year when a group of train drivers split off from SIPTU and the NBRU to form the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA) and to demand negotiation rights with Iarnrod Eireann. Their efforts were rejected by the company and by the Courts and, after ten weeks of fruitless industrial action, they agreed to work a new pay and conditions deal, negotiated by their former unions, under protest. Earlier this year, ILDA members applied for and were granted membership of the ATGWU, which does have negotiating rights with Iarnrod Eireann, but not in relation to train drivers. It was clear that ILDA's struggle for recognition and negotiating rights was entering a new phase.
Since then, CIE management, backed by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, has refused to extend negotiating rights to them. They have justified this stance on the grounds that this is an inter-union dispute and, were they to recognise the ATGWU as representing train drivers, then SIPTU and the NBRU would bring the entire rail network to a halt. The irony was that while the leadership of SIPTU and the NBRU warned against the recognition of ATGWU, the members of their two unions refused to pass the ATGWU pickets.
The general secretary of the ICTU, Mr Peter Cassells, condemned the action and insisted it must be called off. According to procedures agreed by all unions - including the ATGWU - no strike should take place pending the outcome of investigations by the Disputes Committee. The ATGWU appears determined to ignore that procedure and to press ahead with strike action. As the public braces itself for further disruption, Ms O'Rourke wrung her hands and said she was powerless to intervene. It failed to impress. As the sole shareholder in the company, the public expects more of her. Should the ICTU not resolve the matter quickly, the travelling public would expect the Labour Court and the management of Iarnrod Eireann to bring forward proposals to break the impasse. This dispute does not warrant another summer of disrupted train services.